Technical College Responsiveness - Chapter 6- Letters From Technical College Graduates 2

7/28/2019 Technical College Responsiveness - Chapter 6- Letters From Technical College Graduates 2

1/10

Chapter 6: Letters fromtechnical college graduates

Michael Cosser

Introduction

The contents of this postscript are an unintended consequence of the tracer study,representing as they do the unsolicited letters from tracer study respondents addressed tothe HSRC. The objective of this account is, through presenting the human face of some ofthe difficulties facing technical college graduates in South Africa as articulated in theseletters, to reassert the challenges confronting the FET college sector outlined in previouschapters, without undermining the achievements of these colleges.

The number of survey respondents who submitted letters to the HSRC along with theircompleted questionnaires attests to the seriousness with which many in the sample took

the survey. A total of 70 graduates addressed letters to the project manager, only one ofthem anonymously. While some of the letters simply express gratitude at the HSRCsconcern with the situations of technical college graduates and others express a sense ofanticipation at the prospect of their writers being entered into the draw to win thecomputer prize,1 many amplify upon information provided in the quantitative survey.Such amplification warrants separate treatment; hence the analysis of the correspondencepresented below.

Overview of correspondence

In general terms, the information volunteered in the correspondence supports the findingsof the graduate tracer study presented in Chapter 3. Table 6.1 outlines this briefly.

The four areas in this table into which items addressed in the letters have beenaggregated resonate with some of the key concerns raised in Chapter 3. As the numbersof letters addressing the various items suggest, however, there is often a disjuncturebetween a graduates status vis--visan issue and its precise articulation in a letter. Thus,for example, because only seven graduates state that they are unemployed does notmean that only seven are unemployed. Indeed, that twelve graduates make enquiriesabout apprenticeship opportunities suggests, from the tenor of their letters, that none ofthem is employed. Nor, on the other hand, does the fact that only four graduates statethat they are employed mean that only four are employed.

The quantification of information is not intended to indicate representivity, then, but isdesigned to focus attention on broad areas of concern for graduates, areas that articulatewell with the FET college sector challenges identified in the rest of this book. The natureof such articulation is briefly outlined here.

The issue of employment and employability is far and away the major concern of thesetechnical college graduates. Thirty-four of the 55 substantive letters (that is, those raisingissues germane to the focus of the tracer study rather than informing the HSRC of changeof address, serving as covering letters to accompany questionnaires, or anticipatingwinning the computer prize) are either occupied or preoccupied with jobs. Five of theremaining letters are purely requests for bursaries or study loans, while one is from the

83

HSRC 2003

1 The offer of a prize to the winner of a computerised random draw was made to boost the response rate to thesurvey. Nine respondents apologise for late submission of their questionnaires in relation to this incentive.

Freedownloadfro

mwww.hsrcublishers.ac.za


2/10

brother of a deceased graduate. The high unemployment rate amongst respondents to thesurvey, then, is mirrored in the prominence of the employment issue in the graduate

correspondence. However, it is important to note that those who are unemployed or whoare struggling to find funds for further studies may be more likely to have the time andmotivation to write letters of the kinds represented here. Thus, it is important to note thatthe letters are not likely to be representative of the concerns of all graduates surveyed bythe study.

From Chapter 3 it is evident that apprenticeship does not feature highly in the learningtrajectories of technical college graduates. Only 375 of the 3 503 graduates (or 11 percent) were apprenticed under an industry training board, while 333 (or ten per cent)

Technical college responsiveness

84

HSRC 2003

Table 6.1: Nature of correspondence from respondents to the graduate tracer study

Item addressed in correspondence No. of letters

addressing item*

Employment

Employed 4

Submitting curricula vitaeand/or certificates 15

Applying for a job with, or through the services of, the HSRC 10

Unemployed 7

Seeking specific information about employers in their field 2

Presently working on a voluntary (unpaid) basis 2

Apprenticeship

Seeking (information about) an apprenticeship 10

Needing in-service training in a company 2

Undergoing apprenticeship training in a company or training centre 7

Paying off a bursary at a company 2

Practical training

Complaining about colleges lack of concurrent theoretical and practical training 5

Further study

Presently studying at a technical college 6

Presently studying at a technikon 2

Submitting proof of current studies 2

Seeking a bursary/loan for further study 9

Citing financial constraints as the main reason for not studying further 5

* Each letter may address more than one of these items, while some letters address none of them.

Freedownloadfro



3/10

Chapter 6

qualified as artisans either during or after their formal studies. Unsurprisingly, then, anumber of graduate correspondents (12) seek apprenticeships or in-service training eitherwith the HSRC or other organisations.

Following on from this issue, complaints about the inadequacy of practical training incolleges and its divorce from theoretical instruction, the subject of five letters, throw intosharper relief the rating of the quality of practical instruction in the tracer study, wheregraduates rate practical instruction neither bad nor good but non-practical instructionbetween good and very good.

Finally, much of the correspondence is devoted to the issue of further study. In thisregard, there are two types of correspondents: those who indicate that they are studyingfurther, and those who would like to, but by dint mostly of lack of financial support areunable to. Opinion about this latter aspect was not canvassed in the tracer study survey.But the citing of impecuniousness as a constraint to further study introduces a newdynamic to the technical college learning pathway: the tension between FET as astepping-stone to further or higher education (the job market for the most part not beingopen to graduates with an N3- or NSC-level qualification) and further or higher educationas unaffordable. Lack of funds is certainly a major disincentive to Grade 12 learnersentering higher education, as the findings of Phase 1 of the Student Choice Behaviourproject conducted recently by the HSRC suggest (see Cosser with du Toit 2002).

General observations about the letters

Before an analysis of excerpts from graduate letters is undertaken, some preliminaryremarks need to be made about the correspondence.

The first is that many graduates who submitted letters with their questionnaires wereclearly ignorant about the nature and function of the HSRC. This may inadvertently beattributable in part to a sentence in the covering letter of the questionnaire stating that thesurvey was designed to assist the HSRC in providing useful information to colleges andemployers about the needs of college graduates. Many graduates, it seems, interpretedthis to mean that the HSRC could either itself offer them employment or refer them topotential employers. The large number of telephone calls made to the HSRC during thesurvey administration period confirms this misunderstanding.

The second is that there is a poor understanding amongst graduates, and seemingly alsoamongst employers, about the current status of apprenticeships. This is not surprising,given that many employers may be operating in what they consider to be a policy, and

consequently an implementation, vacuum as the transition from apprenticeships tolearnerships is effected. As one letter puts it:

the problem is that Iam a learner in the other company as you know othercompany they have cancelled that thing of apprentice and making the peoplewho deserve to be apprentice a learner That is why Iam confused I dontknow weather Iam a apprentice or a learner. May be you can help me to knowwhat exactly must I call my self. (Graduate letter 1)

85

HSRC 2003

Freedownloadfro



4/10


The third, and arguably the most telling, observation is the clear signalling of thedesperation of at least this small group of graduates. This comes, variously, from thenumber of letters mailed to the HSRC, from the breadth of forms of assistance requestedin them, and from the styles in which they are couched. Some letters, for example, arebroad in their scope of reference, requesting information about apprenticeshipopportunities, bursaries, and employment in the same breath. The subject field of oneletter, Application for a job/bursary/apprenticeship (Graduate letter 2), epitomises thisbreadth. Other letters, though less articulate, are perhaps even more desperate in theirvery brevity. One letter is signed From hopeless (Graduate letter 3), while another endsI dont know what is happening to me Please help me (Graduate letter 4). Two otherletters sound a similar note:

I do not know if may be your Department can just help me. (Graduate letter 5)

I want any kind of job that can I get and can I take even if is any provincein S.A. I can be very happy in my life if my appication can be accepted.(Graduate letter 6)

Two other kinds of formulation mask the desperation that seems to simmer just belowthe surface, one politely formulaic, the other religious. The archaic style of:

I would make myself available for an interview at your convenience.Do not hesitate to write or call me at the above telephone number and address.(Graduate letter 7)

and

If I am fortunate in securing the situation, I shall endeavour by care and diligenceto give every satisfaction. (Graduate letter 8)

stands in stark contrast to the religious effusion of:

You had sent the forms to me unexpectable and it was great pleasure to me thatthere other companies that can take a great care about peoples life. It was/is asif you know all the time that Im suffering from finencial to go back to tertiaryto end up with my courses I belief in God that you are the very bestpeople/company that can afford stand up for its self. You are realiable to keepand preserve ourlives sane. I wish to God to give me the hearts that are full oflove to cheer and cherishes your soul Please Mr Michael and the staff I really

truly and honestly need a help from your company. May God bless these.(Graduate letter 9)

Contrasting styles aside, both register anxiety in their own ways.

Analysis of selected correspondence

Just as employment and further study are recurring themes in the letters, so too doignorance of the role of the HSRC, anxiety and confusion about apprenticeships, and a

86

HSRC 2003

Freedownloadfro



5/10

Chapter 6

sense of desperation pervade the correspondence. More than providing trends andpatterns, however, the individual case study approach to selected letters bothparticularises general observations and epitomises the predicaments in which manygraduates may find themselves. Though generalisation from these cases is clearly notpossible, further research might well be shown to endorse the sentiments expressed sopoignantly in the excerpts discussed.

The letters selected for analysis are of three kinds. The first are letters offeringconstructive suggestions for improvements to the FET college system. The second areletters, which, juxtaposed, demonstrate the bind which confusion about the apprentice-ship system creates for learners. And the third are letters conveying deep-seated anxietyabout life situations arising out of a combination of experience of technical collegeeducation and personal circumstances. Each will be dealt with in turn.

Improvements to the college system

Four letters make suggestions for improvements to the college system. Three of the fourare amongst the most articulate letters received.

The first reads as follows:

I read with great interest your form of Technical College Learner SatisfactionQuestionnaire, allow me to express my views.

The improvement that would be made at the Technical College, especially theengineering students is that they need seminars on the following topics: How to get the job you want.

Business-orientation skills. Negotiations. Motivation and confidence restoration.

I have enclosed the complete Technical College Learner SatisfactionQuestionnaire.

Thank you for your time and consideration. (Graduate letter 10)

The proposed seminar topics address two of the very practical issues that confront allcollege graduates entering the labour market: job-seeking skills (Motivation; How to getthe job you want) and job interview and operational skills (Negotiations; Businessorientation skills). The implications for colleges are both obvious and immediate. Moreintriguing, however, is the writers inclusion of confidence restoration. The phrasecaptures the disheartening effects of apartheid on black people in South Africa, and, inthe wake of the countrys emergence not just into the world but also into a global village,on all South Africans, laagered as they were for nearly 50 years under isolationist policies.But it simultaneously comprehends the enormous challenge of building the moralevariously of learners, at the personal and social levels, and of the nation as a whole.

87

HSRC 2003

Freedownloadfro



6/10


The second letter addresses a number of issues succinctly, if a little elliptically:

It was a great experience completing the questionnaire. But a lot had to be doneto improve or market technical colleges in townships. It seems as if employers aredoubtful of the quality of education offered at these institutions, hence againstudents with NSC qualifications struggle to get jobs because employers fear topay competitive salaries, hence most of these graduates had to opt for other jobsthat they have not studied.

I personally would like the HSRC to conduct the same research at technicalemployers and would like to hear their response. (Graduate letter 11)

Some of the key challenges facing the college sector are addressed in this letter; but theirelliptical articulation masks the import of the argument. First, the writer appears to argueat once for improvement of the quality of education in township colleges and for thesecolleges to be (better) marketed. A paradox is evident: employers would be doubtful ofthe quality of education offered at these institutions probably for historical reasons (statecolleges having been established in townships under a deliberately inferior BantuEducation dispensation); but while poor quality education is not exportable, some meansneeds to be found to bring township colleges into the industrial mainstream.

Second, graduate inability to find employment is attributed to employer fear to paymarket-related salaries. This fear is really refusal: it is not so much that graduates aredemanding competitive salaries as that employers are refusing to pay competitive salariesbecause the qualifications of township college graduates are not perceived to becomparable to those of their state-aided college counterparts. Graduates end up workingin positions for which they have not been trained not because they will not accept non-

competitive salaries, then, but because they are forced to accept any work they can find,competitively remunerated or not.

Third, the plea for the HSRC to survey employers about the issue of employing townshipcollege graduates reflects an understanding of the need to triangulate opinion from bothgraduate and employer perspectives. The deployment of an Employer Satisfaction Surveydiscussed in Chapter 4 represents a first attempt at such triangulation, which the HSRChopes will be appropriated by colleges themselves as their capacity to undertake suchsurveys is enhanced.

The third letter exemplifies the graduates dilemma as articulated in the second point inthe above letter:

When you asked about my current work situation, I was not sure if you meantwork in connection with my studies or just any form of employment. CurrentlyIm a casual shop assistant at [name of shop] store while I am still trying to find ajob or apprenticeship (based on my studies). (Graduate letter 12)

This writer highlights, through personal experience, the question of whether collegesuccess is measured by any employment or by particular types. It also suggests thedanger that college graduates will fall into the low-skills element of a polarised South

88

HSRC 2003

Freedownloadfro



7/10

Chapter 6

African labour market rather than finding work in the crucial, but underdeveloped,intermediate skills stratum. Moreover, by raising the issue of apprenticeship, it providesindirect commentary on the inadequacy of much college provision for access to thissegment as a college education is no longer bundled with an apprenticeship, nor alargely automatic precursor to artisanal employment.

The fourth letter argues for greater industry support for colleges in the form of donationsof equipment for practical work:

Our college is around many companies eg. [names of four companies]. But allthese companies they donot support this college. If only each company can buyone machinery for those workshops [engineering workshops, computerlaboratories], I believe that all of those workshop can be equipted fully and thatwill make it easy for practical instruction, in this college.

NB This companies are affecting us with smoke and with their blasting materialbut they donot give back anything to our community. (Graduate letter 13)

The argument for a symbiotic relationship between colleges and industry was taken up inChapter 5 of this book. Suffice it to say here that a partnership approach towardseducation and training provision in the FET college sector may make the single biggestcontribution towards rendering the sector more responsive to the countrys socio-economic needs.

The apprenticeship bind

Two letters are offered here for comparison. Both of them deal with the issue of

apprenticeships, but from different positions along the naivety-sophistication continuum.

The first excerpt reads as follows:

As from 1999, I tried by all means to get an apprenticeship to the company whereI am employed. The traing Officer always told me that there is no space. Andfinally he told me that I am average. This words confused me. From then untilnow, I remained Idle. I dont know if I can continue with my studies or not.(Graduate letter 4)

The essential naivety of this letter can be juxtaposed with the more sophisticatedunderstanding of some of the dynamics at work in the college-industry relationshipevident from the following excerpt:

Technical colleges are taking many unguided students for a ride. All companiesI have tried getting an apprentice with told me they have frozen them till furthernotice. There is a lot of Nipotism in the Construction Industry and if you knownobody you are a nobody. Some companies like [name of company] only taketechnikon students because of the practical training they have when they golooking for an in-service training at S2 level. If technical colleges had effectiveand productive training we will deffinetly get employment but they do not andthat is why we dont have jobs. Building companies work on time limits andteaching you what to do wastes their time so you end up not having a job

89

HSRC 2003

Freedownloadfro



8/10


Please Mr Cosser help us to be heard because we (N6 students) are just wisperingand searching in the dark. (Graduate letter 3)

Both correspondents are operating in the dark. The first has tried to secure anapprenticeship only in the company in which he/she is employed, but has failed either tounderstand the training dispensation in the company or to recognise his/her owninadequacies. There is resignation in the writers language, the training officers accusationof the graduates being average having reduced him/her to becoming Idle. The secondgraduate, on the other hand, has at least approached a number of companies aboutadmission to apprenticeships, and is aware of the training-through-apprenticeship hiatus,if not the reasons for it. This graduate has also, moreover, identified the factors thatinfluence whether students will find employment or not: who you know in the industry;and whether you have undergone practical training. More importantly, however, he/sheseems implicitly to appreciate the catch-22 situation (derived from Hellers [1961] book ofthe same name) in which employers want people with practical experience, but unlessthey have acquired the requisite skills in college or they have been apprenticed to anemployer who does not want them in the first place unless they have practicalexperience, they cannot get such experience. This also should serve to remind us thatcolleges are not the authors of this problem but are engaged (albeit often with littlesuccess) in strategies to rebuild the connection between the practical and theoreticalaspects of vocational learning.

Two portraits of college graduates

This chapter concludes with an analysis of two graduate letters that in their inimitableways epitomise more poignantly than any statistics could do the possible plights oftechnical college graduates in South Africa.

The first letter reads as follows:

Mr M. Cosser.

I am writing you this letter because I feel theres a few things you need to know!(That I would like to share with you).

I did St 9 in a normal school in 1997. In that year my family and I had to gothrew some changes. For 1 my father passed away; and 2, my mom was withouta job. I then failed the year: the 1 teacher of mine starting been nasty to me, rightafter the funeral, and made things very difficult for me. In 1998 I went to college,

where they were very friendly and helpful to my mother and I and I enrolled.I went back in 1999 to do Secreterial Catering and economics for I couldnt find ajob This (catering + Economics) was also done on a NIC level. I passed that.Since then I have been in and out of jobs. I would like to go back to college todo my Matric. But unfortunately neither my mother or I have the money to do so.The job I have now is just about enough for me to buy groceries. But it is a joband hopefully will be permanent.

90

HSRC 2003

Freedownloadfro



9/10

Chapter 6

Can you perhaps assist me with any options that I can take for me to becomemore educated. Can I apply for a study loan and where can I do somethinglike that?

Thank you for your time and good work.

[Name and cell-phone number]. (Graduate letter 14)

The second reads:

Dear Michael Cosser my name is [name]. I whent to [Name of college] to go intothe field I whanted to study and complete my Technical Matric. At the time I wasinterested in the field I was going to study, but like every teenager your neverrealy sure what you whant to do. I studied Mechanical Engineering Fitting &Maching. I completed N1, N2, N3/NSC at the time I did N4 but I failed some ofthe subjects I only passed Drawing. I whanted to go up to N6 but nothing isalways as easy as it seems. I was always good in drawing It was my best subjectso I done AutoCad R14 I whanted to go into Draughting. After I failed N4 I leftthe College. The Teachers new I wasnt doing well but they didnt even try to helpme or speak to me about anything. I tryied to apply for work but they said thatI dont have any practical experience, but if the companys are not willing to giveworking experience how do they expect me to get any experience. I whent toemployment agencies but they dont even whant to know me with just a N3/NSCwith bad marks and no working experience. The years have gone buy with justdoing partime jobs and some casual jobs nothing to do with what I have studied.My life is a mess. I have no Career ahead of me and no goals. Ive even thoughtof Suicide. I would like to start my own business but I dont have any capital.

I came up with some ideas which I asked some people to help me with but noone was interested to help. It is the beginning of the New Year and I dont knowwhat Iam going to do with my self. I have no Job. Iam not even interested in thefield I studied any more. Maybe what I need is to start all over again. I must bethe most Comfused 21 year old around. Maybe the best thing is for me to end oflife I have nothing else. Not much of a college Graduate more like a Collegescrew up. (Graduate letter 15)

The writers of these letters have at least two things in common: they are both youngwhite South Africans seemingly from low socio-economic backgrounds; and they haveboth been in and out of jobs, as the first letter puts it, unable to fund either further studyor business start-up. But the differences between the two are stark. While the first writer

appears to have a job that may offer some permanence, the second does not; his jobshaving been part time and/or casual. While the first has an essentially positive outlook onlife despite the hardships she has endured, the outlook of the second is unremittinglynegative. The first acknowledges the friendliness of college personnel (which seems tohave been the reason for her enrolling in the college), stoically accepts that a job is ajob that hopefully will last, and takes the initiative in asking for help. The second,however, paints the gloomiest picture imaginable of his learning-come-living trajectory,which not even his ideas for starting his own business or his tentative musing that heshould start all over again can redeem.

91

HSRC 2003

Freedownloadfro



10/10


A discourse analysis of the second letter confirms, indeed, what is almost a pathologicalnegativity. The word not (either on its own or in contracted form) features nine times inthe piece, no four times, and never once. The words failed and nothing each occurtwice, while bad, mess, [confused] and screw up occur once each. There are tworeferences to suicide (suicide and end my life). The worldview that emerges is one ofabsolute hopelessness. It is not clear from the piece what the relationship betweencollege education and personal pathology is: did a string of adverse circumstances issuein a pathological negativity; or was an already depressive personality merely furtherdepressed by these experiences? Perhaps both, in a mutually reinforcing way.

Conclusion

The last two letters analysed relate learning stories that personify the image of the collegegraduate that emerges from the statistics presented in Chapter 3. Neither is statisticallytypical of the technical college graduate of 1999 with an N2, N3 or NSC: a 21-year-oldAfrican male electrical engineering graduate, who is roughly as likely to be inemployment, unemployed or in further studies two years after graduation. But bothcorrespondents are, in different ways, victims of neglect at the hands of a broadereducation and training system that has failed to channel them into appropriate careerpaths. The issues raised by both recur in different forms in all the correspondence andbear out, albeit in exaggerated ways, some of the findings of the graduate tracer study.

There are no new conclusions to draw or challenges to pose from the foregoing analysis.But there are more than 50 technical college graduates whose voices are clamouring tobe heard.

92

Freedownloadfro


Documents

Technical College Responsiveness - Chapter 6- Letters From Technical College Graduates 2